In September 2022, the GYA became an early signatory of the European Commission’s “Reforming Research Assessment Agreement” and with this, joined the “Coalition on Reforming Research Assessment” CoARA.
CoARA is an initiative of the European Commission, Science Europe and the Association of European Universities, aiming at reforming the way that researchers and scientific excellence are assessed. This initiative drafted an agreement, which was revised and rewritten with the input of over 50 organisations, including the GYA, through its Scientific Excellence Working Group.
GYA was one of the first signing organisations (with supporting voices from the Scientific Excellence WG, through a vote of the GYA Executive Committee), and to date over 200 organisations have signed the agreement and expressed interest in joining CoARA.
At the recent CoARA launch, GYA member and co-lead of the Scientific Excellence Working Group, Yensi Flores Bueso (University College Cork, Ireland)was selected to the Steering Committee of CoARA, as a GYA nominee.
“I am honoured to have been nominated and represent GYA in CoARA, an organisation that shares the core values of the Scientific Excellence working group. I am enthusiastic of this role and eager to be part of a global movement aiming to transform our research institutions in a way that will put at the core inclusion, diversity, integrity, and open science”. – Yensi Flores Bueso
The Coalition aims to have an impact beyond Europe, and is open for organisations worldwide. Signatories of this Agreement agree to regularly demonstrate progress towards reviewing, developing and evaluating criteria, tools and processes that fulfil the core Commitments, with a touch point at end of 2027 or within five years of signing the Agreement, by which time they will have worked through at least one cycle of review and development of their assessment criteria, tools and processes.
